Have you ever found yourself wishing you could capture an extraordinary sound, but without an audio recorder in your possession? The recent exponential growth in mobile technology use presents exciting new horizons for spontaneous audio recording. Mobile media devices such as smart phones and MP3 players can be used as sophisticated audio recorders and are eminently ready-to-hand while on the move.

Mobile media devices also present new ways to organize and work with sound files through their "locative media" potential, as recordings can be ‘tagged’ with GPS data from the original location, along with date, time, title, conditions and other relevant notes. The same device can be used to take photos linked to the audio recordings, useful as mnemonic tools for later file recognition. Mobile media devices also afford powerful systems for sharing files through instantaneous uploading to online storage systems (cloud computing, Google Maps, and other custom applications). Lastly, they provide fascinating production opportunities of their own accord, through the increasing variety of free or low-cost audio-production/recording "apps".

Owen Chapman and Samuel Thulin are two sound artists with extensive experience in mobile field recording. Chapman has also designed an iPhone audio-field recording and sound-mapping app entitled "Audio-Mobile" that will be featured prominently in this workshop. Created for artists and professionals in various disciplines wishing to experiment with cutting-edge mobile sound recording and production software, the workshop will also explore various creative ways to organize and remix recordings, including mobile sound controllers, soundmaps and digital turntablism.

*This workshop will be conducted in French and English.

Prerequisites - Be a professional artist, creator or cultural worker;- Be a self-employed worker or a salaried employee in an enterprise not subject to 1 % Training Investment*;- Attend every workshop session.

*Any enterprise whose total payroll is $1.000.000 or more is subject to 1% Training Investment. (Emploi-Québec Program)

Number of participants: 10 peopleRegistration period: October 31 to November 29, 2012Call or email the New Media Lab: 514 844-3250, ext. 230 or lab@oboro.net.Cost: $120Schedule: Saturdays and Sundays, December 1-2 and 8-9, 2012, from 10 am to 5 pm.

POLICYReservation / PaymentReservations can be done by phone or email. Full payment must be made for inscription to be valid. You can pay by credit card (Visa or MasterCard), cheque or in cash. Inscription to a workshop is not transferable.

Cancellation / RefundingOBORO does not refund inscription fees except in case of illness (with a medical note) or of absolute necessity. In such cases, inscription fees are transferable to another workshop or service offered by the New Media Lab.

Workshop CancellationOBORO reserves the right to cancel workshops at any time and without advance notice. In this case, inscription fees are totally refunded.

Owen Chapmanis an audio artist whose work involves sample-based music, video projection, contact microphones and old electronic instruments. He is director of the Montreal Mobile Media Lab, located in the Communication Studies department at Concordia University, where he is also an assistant professor in Sound Production and Scholarship. In 2011, he completed a Writing Audio Art residency at OBORO, resulting in a publication in the January 2012 edition of esse arts + opinions magazine.

Samuel Thulinis a researcher, musician and media artist living in Montreal. His work is concerned with concepts of mobility, place, and sound, as well as the history of media and technology. He is a member of the Mobile Media Lab and PhD candidate in the Communication Studies department at Concordia University.

Stéphane Claude is an electronic_acoustic composer and sound engineer. His research is based on integrating a conceptual and physiological framework of audio recording and sound installation for different diffusion contexts in the electronic arts. His interests gravitate around the communication of a formal aesthetic, of a transductive experience of the electronic medium, an exploration of digital signal processing, the parameters of acoustic and sound in spaces. His work has been published by ATAK(JP), LINE, DRAGON’S EYE RECORDINGS (US), ORAL (CA), among others. He is the co-founder of the art research unit Ælab with artist and professor Gisèle Trudel. The work of Ælab has been shown internationally. As an audio consultant, he participates in the conception, production and integration of presentation spaces, of specialized analog and digital creation and production studios for artist run centers, institutions and independant sites.